Dinosaurs:ATTACK!

Here is an old cover that I worked on from a magazine called Model and Toy Collector. I did about 7-8 covers for this mag in the 90's, sometimes solo, sometimes with my good friend James Elliott. I will post a few in the coming weeks.
Stay Tuned!

Boga and Obi Wan Concept: Hasbro

Hello,
Have not posted in some time. I have been hard at work on a number of projects as well as on a much needed vacation in California for the San Diego Comicon.
While working at Hasbro Toys last year I was lead designer on their Playskool Jedi Force Star Wars line. Fortunately my work on the line required a couple trips to Skywalker Ranch. Here is the design sketch I did for the Boga lizard that Obi Wan rode in Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith.
More to come...

Boga and Obi Wan finished figures

Dinosaurs!!!!

These are two dinosaur sketches from a portfolio I did around 1992 for a trip I took to Los Angeles, California. At the time every big special effects house on the west coast was vying for the contract to do the film version of Michael Crichton's novel: Jurassic Park. While on this trip I met people like Frank Darabont, (director of The Shawshank Redemption), Rick Baker, (5 time oscar winner for special makeup effects, and at the time attempting to get the JP contract as well), and also stopped by Stan Winston Studios (I had just done the box cover illustration for Geometric models: "Pumpkinhead" monster model.)
There head designer at the time, Mark " Crash" Mcreery really liked my Triceratops drawing, and it just so happened to be the dinosaur they were designing that week. They had not got the contract yet, but after seeing their 7 foot sculpture of a T-Rex, I new that they would.
A very fond memory...

Sculpts from the Past

Here are two sculpts I did while freelancing many years ago. Both were released by Polar Lights/Playing Mantis and are based on film properties. One is from Universal Pictures "The Mummy", and the other is Tim Burton's" The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".
Fine Scale Modeler Magazine voted the Sleepy Hollow kit the best figure model kit of the year when it was released.
( Yes, that is Tim Burton's head in the Horseman's hand....)

The Herculoids!!

Anyone remember these guys? They appeared on television in the early 1960's when Super Saturday morning was owned by animators;William Hanna and Joseph Barbara. This was just a way-cool, wacked out concept from the mind of comic book artist Alex Toth. The show consisted of a highly imaginitive animal army led by a heroic human named King Zandor. Zandor's family consisted of his wife Tara, and his son Dorno. The beasts were as follows:
Igoo the rock ape, Tundro the tremendous (a kind of Rino-saurus) Zok the lazer-ray dragon, and Gloop and Gleep, "the fearless, formless wonders!"
Anyway, this is my version of the shows main critter characters.
C'mon, Hollywood. We need a big-budget Herculoids movie.
And we need it now!!

Buce & Gar: The Return!!

Hit the " Buce & Gar" link to the left and check out some of my vintage 1980's comic book art from Buce & Gar number 1!

Project 20078

In the early 90's I sculpted one of my first garage kits called the Jupiterian. It was based on an animated creature created by special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen when he was very young. I met Ray at a convention a few years later and we decided to collaborate on a new, more accurate sculpture of the beast that he would oversee. This is the first sketch I did of the proposed new sculpture.
Like a fool, I ended up taking on a number of big freelance jobs soon thereafter and never got the project going.
One of the great regrets of my career.

More from the vault...

From the land beyond beyond...from a world past hope and fear....
I bid you artwork now appear!
The year: 1990. I had just completed my first complete multi-issue comic tale starring my characters: Buce-n-Gar. This was to be the cover for the paperback edition of the collected five issue series. (Pardon the crappy logo....I was but a young artist then.)
For those of you wondering, Buce is a blue-furred, hulk-sized, two-ton animal called a Ferdag. Gar is a reptilian warlord from the primitive planet of Drendenshall. Together they are a legendary heroic force for good protecting the universe from the sinister Barrium Overlords. Wanna know more? Let me know and I'll post some pages from the old comic book they starred in during my art school days.

When Pigs Fly...

Anybody remember a toy line from the 1980's produced by Playmates Toys and American Greetings called Barnyard Commandoes? Barnyard Commandoes was the very first toy concept that I did upon graduating art school. And looky here! My first Barnyard Commando drawing in almost 20 years!! Sooooowwweeeeee!!!
J.G.

Madball-Mania!!

I was so inspired by the positive response to the new Madball line from American Greetings/Art Asylum, that I got jazzed up to do a painting/portrait of Hornhead in acrylics on 16'' by 16'' canvas board. Though I have always considered my painting skills somewhat weak, I dove right in to the project. And in a short time, this was the result. I plan to do a couple more very soon, so check back in the near future (if you dare!).

Warehouse find!

Well lookie here! This is a piece of art I did for Geometric Design Models many years ago. It was for a full color booklet that was included with a vinyl model of the movie monster Pumpkinhead. It depicts a scene from an un-produced screenplay for the sequel (not to be confused with the piss-poor sequel that was actually made...). This script was rather good and actually had the Pumpkinhead demon sprouting wings halfway through the story.

Monster Hunter comic page

Here is a little exersize I did a few days back to post on our "Sketch-o-Rama" blog. It is my first comic book page in about 8 years. It was really fun to do, and I look forward to doing more.

Godzilla Bust

Here is a rather large sculpture I did in 1997. The intent was to create a showpiece to help me obtain sculpting jobs from toy and collectable companies for this heavily licensed film. It did help me land the job sculpting the previously posted full body kit for Playing Mantis. A rather lucrative contract I might add. So don't badmouth old Zilla around my family,..he pays the bills in our house!
P.S. I still have a couple of these bad boys cast in resin laying around, so anyone interested in making a purchase, let me know by posting on my blog. The bust comes in 5 easy to assemble pieces and stands about 11 inches tall when finished. Its a damn fine sculpt that I am still quite fond of.

Tristar Godzilla Prototype

This is a sculpture I did for a company called Polar Lights/Playing Mantis of the infamous 1998 Sony Tristar Godzilla. It was intended to be a rather large styrene plastic model kit, but because of problems at the factory it could not be produced in time and was cancelled. Sorry for the somewhat sub-standard photo, it is all I can locate at this time. The entire kit consisted of a huge parent Godzilla, ruins of a toppled skyscraper and six eggs with five baby Zilla's milling about. The sculpture itself ended up being 12 inches tall and about 26 inches long. And took roughly two months of hard labor.
I will post better photos when I find them...

Madballs!!!

And now for something completely different...
I am currently working on a whole new relaunch of the old classic toy line from the 1980's....MADBALLS!
Since I was around in those days and actually worked on the toy line back then, it is real cool to be working on the new incarnations.
For more info on the first line of toys being launched at Toyfair in New York City this week, go to Madballs or check out the website of the company that is licensing the property from American Greetings at: Art Asylum.

The Gatorman

As an experiment I tried taking one of my large pencil illustrations into photoshop to color. I am a huge fan of the work of Frank Frazetta, Bernie Wrightson and an old, little known pulp and hardcover illustrator named Allen St. John. This piece benefits from their inspiration.

Zombot Ghouls on the March

Another big ole' pencil rendering based on my script: Monster Hunter. This one depicts the shocking, shambling foot soldiers known as Zombot Ghouls. Once you've been recruited by the villainous Baron Wroclaw, you've joined his ranks for life.
And beyond...

Introducing: Mangus Vladix

One particularly interesting tertiary character in my screenplay is an ancient, legendary Celtic Vampire Warlord named Mangus Vladix. Here is an excerpt from my character profile included with all my script submissions.

MANGUS VLADIX
Sixth Century Ireland and it’s surrounding provinces became the feeding ground for the vicious Celtic Vampire Warlord, Mangus Vladix. Vladix and his godless band of pirates, thieves and cutthroats began drinking the blood of their prisoners as a source of sustenance during their numerous nomadic raids. They angered and offended so many ageless gods of the ancient world that they became cursed to live eternally as undead vampiric monsters, now dependent on the blood that they had so arbitrarily sought. In the early 20th Century, Baron Elexia Wroclaw’s archeological task-forces unearthed the tomb of the evil Warlord Mangus Vladix. His ancient stone coffin was shipped to the Wroclaw Institute in upstate New York, where the revived monster attacked Professor Tierra Accord and her assistant Drew Addison working at that facility. Fortunately Aden arrived in time to save Tierra’s life, and kill the savage Celtic Vampire.
Or so he thought.

Monster Hunter: Museum Battle

Here is an illustration done a few years back depicting Adin's first encounter with the monstrous Celtic Vampire. Though this battle takes place early on in my screenplay, do not worry, the evil Warlord is down, but not out...

Mangus Vladix: Comic Book Version

Here is a more..."simplified" version of my character: Mangus Vladix. Ready to enter the comic book world...

Cool Your Jets 3

This is another version of a piece I originally did for a sister-blog called Sketch-o-Rama. It is a place where myself and a few fellow American Greetings employees post new artwork from time to time. This "assignment" was a chick with a machine and/or vehicle. Check out other works of wonder at Sketch-o-Rama! (Look for it in the Links section of this blog...)
J.G.

Presenting; Pebbles!

Thought I would take a break from King Kong and Monster Hunter to post some shots of a few sculptures I have done over the years. As I might have mentioned earlier, I worked for years as a professional toy, model and collectable sculptor. Some of the images that follow represent a small fraction of the work I have done over the past 15 years. Some of these pieces are contract work, while others are personal projects that I produced and sold at Model Kit and Toy Conventions.
First up is a piece I call Pebbles the Cavegirl. She is about 11 inches tall and bustin' out all over. Yes, my friends. This is Fred's little girl all growed up!
Pebbles was produced around 1998 and sold at a number of Garage Kit shows I attended across the United States in the years following. She came with an "optional" snap-on bra, (which most people seemed to disregard when assembling). The bra was included for all those kid-friendly collector toy shows the kit was displayed at.
I got alittle tired of being slapped by all those angry mommies when Pebbles first appeared in all her topless glory.

Beach Blanket Beastie!

Here is one of my first sculpts. It was produced as a limited edition resin model kit. This SOB has outsold any other piece I have ever produced on my own. I still recieve inquiries from fans trying to locate a copy. It is based on a real cool illustration I did for a t-shirt design. When I find a copy of the art, I will post it as well.

Geometric Models Creature From The Black Lagoon

One of my favorite old Universal horror films, and one of my all-time favorite monster designs. This was a dream come true when I got the contract to do this job. This film is in the process of being remade, and this beastie is gonna be a tough one to beat!!

Ploar Lights/Toys-R-Us Classic Godzilla 1954

This was done a few years back as an exclusive for Toys-R-Us. It's about 18 inches tall, and was produced in styrene. I am a long-time Godzilla and monster movie fan, so this job was a hoot.

Conglomeron Prototype

Here is a rough sculpt I did for an action figure of my patchwork creation: Conglomeron. This was done before I really started sculpting professionally. It is helped in the extreme by a masterful paintjob from Mr. James Elliott.

Monster Hunter Project: continued...

In early 2002 I got the itch to write up a screenplay. I had some limited experience after having written a number of CD rom interactive scripts, comic book stories and even a couple internet comedy skits that ran on the American Greetings website. I have read many books on writing screenplays, and read many published scripts from my favorite films. One of these books I would highly recommend is the published version of the script to the film "The Shawshank Redemption" written by Frank Darabont (who also directed the film) and based on the Stephen King story. I had the pleasure of meeting Frank in person many years ago and had a wonderful dinner, beers and a cigar at his house with him and his houseguest, artist Bernie Wrightson. Frank's work has been a continued inspiration to me over the years.
Anyway, after over a year or so of long nights at the keyboard, I finished my script. It is titled "Monster Hunter" (for now) and is of course based on the same characters and basic plotline that I had created as a toy concept while at the Zillion Concepts studio. Over the last couple years I have tweaked it, edited it, and rewritten entire scenes. A few months back I shipped it to a west coast entertainment rep I know, and crossed my fingers.
As part of the process I created a number of large pencil drawings of key characters and scenes. Above is an illustration of the main villain of my tale. His name is Baron Elexia Wroclaw, and behind him looms his artificially created pet: Conglomeron.
I got ambitious last year and wanted some prices for producing some vinyl toys based on my creations. I drew up a couple rough orthographics of my main hero Aden, and his nemesis: Conglomeron so I could get a price from an overseas vendor. What follows is a few of the drawings I generated in the process. I have since got sidetracked on other projects, but hope to still produce these toys in the future.

Design sketches

These are the initial concept drawings I did for the proposed Monster Hunter: Aden and Conglomeron figures.

Front view MH

Side view MH

Monster Hunter: The Comic

During the early 1990's I was a partner in a small design studio known as Zillion Concepts. We did Illustration, toy design and protyping service work for a variety of toy, model kit and collectors product companies around the world. I myself not only did concept sketches and marker roughs, but sculpted prototypes and tooling ready models as well. My clients included companies such as: Hasbro Toys, Kenner Toys, Oddzon/Captoys, Ertyl Collectables, Polar Lights, Playing Mantis, American Greetings, and N2Toys to name a few. I worked on toy lines and model kits based on such entertainment properties as: Star Wars, Godzilla, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, The Universal Monsters, The Mummy, Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow ect. These were fun and prosperous years, and a very creative time in my career. I look foreward to posting some of my work from this era of my life on this blog in the near future.

At this time I began work on a line of toys based on a character I created named Monster Hunter. Here is a seven page introductory story I wrote and penciled. The fabulous inks were done by my good friend and fellow illustrator at Zillion Concepts, Jim Elliott.
More on Monster Hunter later...

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King Kong Kountry...

Lets get things started with a couple pieces of art. These are a few years old, but are somewhat appropriate considering the release of Peter Jackson's film next week. Like Mr. Jackson, the original 1933 film is my favorite motion picture of all time, so I did these two massive drawings/paintings in between freelance jobs back in the 1990's. Can you imagine it? One of the greatest film makers of recent times remaking my favorite film of all time? Be still my heart. Needless to say, I've had my tickets since the day they went on sale, and will be seeing the midnight showing on December 13. Advance word on the film is fantastic, so I'm expecting a real treat. (I wonder if there is a show following at 3:oo?)

Its about time....

Hello,
Yup. It's about time I got to Bloggin'.
It has been a while since I let my Website lapse. I was hired by Hasbro toys a few years back (they actually found me through my defunct website....) and just did not have the time to keep it updated. I recently left Hasbro in Rhode Island and am back at my old stomping grounds in Cleveland, Ohio working for American Greetings. All my new buddies at AG have been Bloggin' for some time now, so I figure I would join the fray...
In the next few days I will introduce you to my art. I'm an illustrator, designer (mostly toys and model kits) and sculptor (once again...mostly toys and model kits.) with an interest in Science Fiction, Horror, Movies, Animation and Comics. I am looking forward to posting my work. So please check back from time to time to see what twisted abominations have reared their ugly heads on my new crazy-ass Blog!
Thanks,
J. Groman